Scientists have reported that an experimental vaccine targeting one of the most common genetic drivers of pancreatic cancer, called mutant KRAS, is safe and generated a durable immune responses aimed at preventing the cancer.
4 billion ago, during the Archean eon,
Earth's mantle temperatures
were significantly higher than they are today, according to recent numerical model calculations. A new paper from researchers at
at Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz
says the Archean crust that formed under these conditions was so dense that large portions of it were recycled back into the mantle. According to the calculations, this dense primary crust would have descended vertically in drip form. In contrast, the movements of today's tectonic plates involve largely lateral movements with oceanic lithosphere recycled in subduction zones. The findings add to our understanding of how cratons and plate tectonics, and thus also the Earth's current continents, came into being.
Physicists at Yale and Harvard have thrown a new curve at Supersymmetry, the popular hypothesis about what lies beyond physics' reigning model of fundamental forces and particles, the Standard Model. And it involves the electron's almost perfect roundness.
The researchers have reported the most precise measurement to date of the electron's shape, improving it by a factor of more than 10 and showing the particle to be rounder than predicted by some extensions of the Standard Model, including Supersymmetry. Supersymmetry posits new types of particles that help account for ideas like dark matter, a mysterious, unknown substance estimated to make up most of the universe.
Medical researchers have found a way to reverse a cause of aging in animals - and it doesn't involve starvation.
The work relates to mitochondria, which are our cells' battery packs and give energy to carry out key biological functions, and a series of molecular eventsthat enable communication inside cells between the mitochondria and the nucleus. As communication breaks down, aging accelerates.
Though table salt, sodium chloride (NaCl), is one of the best-known and most studied chemical compounds known, it still has a few mysteries.
Under ambient conditions, it crystallizes in a cubic unit cell and is very stable with one sodium atom (Na) and one chlorine atom (Cl). According to the octet rule, all chemical elements strive to fill their outermost shell with eight electrons, which is the most stable configuration, found in noble gases. Sodium has one extra electron and chlorine is missing one, so sodium donates one electron to chlorine, leaving both atoms with an outer shell containing eight electrons and forming a strong ionic bond.
Stem cell-based gene therapy holds promise for the treatment of devastating genetic skin diseases, but the long-term clinical outcomes of this approach have been unclear.
In a recent study, researchers evaluated a patient with a genetic skin disorder known as epidermolysis bullosa (EB) nearly seven years after he had undergone a gene therapy procedure as part of a clinical trial. The study revealed that a small number of skin stem cells transplanted into the patient's legs were sufficient to restore normal skin function, without causing any adverse side effects.
An antioxidant called MitoQ, which was designed to try and fight damage within human cells about a dozen years ago, significantly helps symptoms in mice that have a multiple sclerosis-like disease.
Multiple sclerosis affects more than 2.3 million people worldwide and occurs when the body's immune system attacks the myelin, or the protective sheath, surrounding nerve fibers of the central nervous system. Some underlying nerve fibers are destroyed. Resulting symptoms can include blurred vision and blindness, loss of balance, slurred speech, tremors, numbness and problems with memory and concentration.
A way to microscopically view battery electrodes while they are bathed in wet electrolytes means it is possible to mimic the realistic conditions inside actual batteries.
It may not seem possible that batter science still has some things to accomplish, but there it is - and just this once, the hard sciences got something from the life sciencesWhile life sciences researchers regularly use transmission electron microscopy to study wet environments, this time scientists have applied it successfully to rechargeable battery research.
A systematic review of 66 research papers focused on the treatment of skin ulcers suggests that most are so technically flawed that their results are unreliable, and even of those that aren't flawed only weak evidence that alternative treatments work better than standard compression therapy or special stockings.
An analysis of pregnant mothers found that children appear to be less at risk for developing peanut or tree nut allergies if their mothers are not allergic and ate more nuts during pregnancy.
In the United States, the prevalence of childhood peanut allergy has more than tripled from 0.4 percent in 1997 to 1.4 percent in 2010. That corresponds with medical recommendations that mothers eat fewer nuts.
Zaballa (Iruña de Oca) was a medieval settlement abandoned in the 15th century due to urban flight. Prior to that it had a manor monastery and later became something of a specialized factory location before its demise.
Zaballa is one of the more than 300 deserted settlements known in Alava-Araba - rural spaces abandoned in historical times but now being studied by the UPV/EHU's Cultural Heritage and Landscapes Research Group.
Sometimes you just have to believe.Acupuncture has proven to be effective, though it isn't actually being done. When it comes to hot flashes due to breast cancer treatment, even skin pricks used to simulate acupuncture needle sticks might be enough to generate natural chemicals that improve symptoms, which would explain the results. The results were that both real and sham weekly acupuncture treatments eased hot flashes and other side effects of anticancer drug treatment, according to the small, preliminary study of breast cancer patients.
Physics can give pointers for energy saving and an can provide materials scientists with tips for the development of high-temperature superconductors.
Nearly two percent of the electrical energy generated by power stations is lost in the grid. In Germany, for example, this is equivalent to the power delivered by a medium-sized coal power plant. With the fad of windfarms, these losses will increase in the future as power from large offshore energy is transported to the landlocked south.
